Optimizing quality of outpatient care for patients with inflammatory bowel disease: the importance of specialist clinics.

Background: Most patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) undergo long-term outpatient follow up. However, quality of care provided by specialist and non-specialist IBD clinics is rarely critically audited.

Objective: To compare the standard of outpatient care provided by general gastroenterology and specialist IBD clinics within a single hospital using defined quality criteria.